U.S. Troops Attack Holdouts in Fallujah (412 in Lanstuhl)

[maddezmom]

~snip~
All of Fallujah appeared engulfed in thick, black smoke as the latest U.S. attack began at midday Saturday amid the crackle of machine guns and the flashes of fire from muzzles of American tanks arrayed around the city's southern rim. A single minaret stood out against the blackened southern skyline.


About 1,000 insurgents had been killed and another 200 captured during the Fallujah operation, Iraq's national security adviser Qassem Dawoud said on national television.


~snip~
Overnight, two city mosques were hit by airstrikes after troops reported sniper fire from inside. On Saturday, two Marines were killed by a homemade bomb southeast of Fallujah.

~snip~

A U.S. warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb to destroy an insurgent tunnel network in the city Saturday, according to CNN embedded correspondent Jane Arraf.


U.S. officials said they hoped the attack would be the final assault on Fallujah, followed by a house-to-house clearing operation to search for boobytraps, weapons and guerrillas hiding in the rubble

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=1&u=/ap/20041113/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

:(

[maddezmom]

1. Iraq say 'mission accomplished' in Fallujah, 1,000 rebels killed

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The military operation to regain control of Fallujah has ended and there are just "malignant" pockets of resistance left to clear up, with more than 1,000 rebels killed, Iraq (news - web sites)'s national security advisor said.


"Operation Fajr (Dawn) has been achieved and only the malignant pockets remain that we are dealing with through a clean-up operation," Qassem Daoud told a news conference in Baghdad.


There was no immediate confirmation from the US military, which spearheaded the offensive unleashed on Monday on the Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041113/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_fallujah_end&cid=1514&ncid=1480

more propaganda from the Iraqi's......Guess it's time to move to Mosul. :eyes:

[bemildred]

3. Hey, it's Saturday.

So the "assault" has to be done.
Otherwise they would have been wrong.
So now we "control" it and just have to "clear" it
of all the remaining "pockets" of insurgents.
I'd want to ask them how big the "pockets" are
and whether we "control" the "pockets" too, and
most importantly whether there is actually less
fighting going on and whether there is a well-defined
"rear" in the city where a soldier can expect not to
get shot. But I don't expect we will be told.

[pinerow]

2. Another "Mission Accomplished"...move on...nothing to see here.

nt

[zulchzulu]

4. Replace the 2,000 year old bombed-out mosques with Walmarts

Freedom isn't free.

Neither is the shit they can buy at Walmart. Like medical supplies for instance.

[maddezmom]

5. US military spokeswomen knows nothing about US troops redeployed to Mosul

The 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 25th Infantry Division, was ordered out of Fallujah and back to Mosul late Thursday. The battalion, which is now part of the Stryker Brigade of Task Force Olympia, already was back in the Mosul area.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The U.S. military said while it was not present everywhere, there were no areas it considered "no go" and control was gradually being restored. It played down suggestions that insurgents forced out of Falluja, west of Baghdad, by a U.S.-led offensive had set up a new base in Mosul.


A U.S. military spokeswoman said she could not confirm reports that a battalion of U.S. troops had been redeployed from Falluja back to Mosul to help regain security.


Previously there had been virtually no evidence of U.S. or Iraqi security forces on the streets, but residents said that changed on Saturday, with units now positioned at the ends of some of the five bridges that span the Tigris in Mosul.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&ncid=586&e=4&u=/nm/20041113/wl_nm/iraq_mosul_dc

[cmd]

6. One of the wounded is from our county

We held anti-war vigils in our town on Mondays during the lead up to the wry. This wounded Marine's girlfriend (now , wife) held pro-war rallies in our twin city.

Yesterday word came that the Marine is on his way to Germany. I don't celebrate this news. I'm very sad that I was not able to make a difference before this mess.

[Ilsa]

7. 412 , Huh? Those are the ones seriously enough wounded to

have to be taken to Frankfurt. I'm sure there are others treated in Iraq and Kuwait.

The media (and military) is probably highly under-reporting the number of US wounded from this assault. My husband said he had heard it was only a couple of hundred, tops.

[maddezmom]

8. agree, so they can under-report the numbers

they can't control the press in Germany to report on planes landing.

[sattahipdeep]

9. Only cowards attack a civilian population

The officially touted figure of around 1100 killed with 8000 injured
from the entire contingent of 130,000. This is not even 10% however
there is a shortage of troops.

To answer the initial question, what is happening in Fallujah is sheer barbarism and
Israeli style collective punishment. News of US forces using chemical weapons
against the Iraqi resistance has also coming through the independent media
www.islamonline.net, so that is where the WMDs are. Perhaps this is why there
has been little mass media coverage from inside Fallujah. Thus, the US soldiers
have once again exposed their cowardice despite the numerical, technological
advantage coupled with the overwhelming firepower. Only cowards attack a civilian
population and the basic civilian infrastructure indiscriminately using massive air
power, artillery and now chemical weapons. A trait of a coward is to torture
prisoners whose hands are tied like we saw in places like Abu-Ghraib.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4286